Star-Powered ‘Love Letters’ Closing Broadway Run Sunday, Two Months Early

The Broadway revival of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters is wrapping its run at the Brooks Atkinson on Sunday after six preview and 95 regular performances.The two-hander had been slated to run through February 15.

Love Letters bowed to glowing reviews September 18 with Brian Dennehy and Mia Farrow (Carol Burnett later replaced Farrow). The pairing of Alan Alda and Candice Bergen spiked the show almost $90,000 to $483,280 two weeks before the Thanksgiving frame — a relatively healthy 62% of gross potential for a show with minimum weekly running costs. Three-quarters of the 1,068 seats were filled.

The 90-minute show, staged by Gregory Mosher, features a man and woman sitting at a table, reading aloud their correspondence over the decades from skittish childhood through testy adolescence, various marriages and affairs including their own, and old age. This production of the play, a staple of fundraisers and nonprofit theaters since it opened off-Broadway and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1990, was designed to run on brief stints by stars who wouldn’t have to make a longterm commitment to the show. Stacy Keach & Diana Rigg and Angelica Huston & Martin Sheen had been announced to appear in the last weeks of the scheduled run.